David Akin, Parliamentary Bureau Chief

OTTAWA - Canada's stock market is likely to take a tumble Monday and you can thank the Harper government for that, half-a-dozen American analysts and fund managers told me Sunday.

The "Harper haircut" for energy stocks alone could be as steep as 5%, the price Canadian shareholders will pay for a rapidly hardening reputation outside our borders that Canada is no place for foreign investment.

"We're going to see sell-offs all around and gore on the floor for Progress and Nexen," Chris Damas, an independent analyst with BCMI Research, told Reuters.

Here's why: A Malaysian state-owned firm, Petronas, was all set to pay $5 billion for a Calgary-based natural gas firm, Progress Energy.

Both firms had been told by federal officials reviewing the deal as recently as last Thursday that Canada would approve the deal. Then, at the 11th hour, Harper, through Industry Minister Christian Paradis, asked Petronas if it would agree to a delay while Canada re-wrote its investment rules as they applied to state-owned enterprises like Petronas and, more importantly, to the Chinese state-owned enterprise, CNOOC, that has a $15-billion bid on the table for Calgary oil and gas producer Nexen. (The deadline for a decision on CNOOC-Nexen is Nov. 10.)

Petronas said no to the delay and tried to call Harper's bluff by demanding a decision on their deal be made Friday. Well, as anyone who's watched Harper over the years knows, there is never any bluff. And so Harper blocked the Petronas deal, announcing it to the world at three minutes to midnight (Ottawa time) on Friday. Petronas, nonetheless, is expected to use a 30-day window available to it to modify the deal and re-submit it to Canada.

"But even if the CNOOC deal (for Nexen) or the Petronas deal (for Progress) go through, it's going to be hard for the damage to Canada's reputation to be undone," said a Wall Street moneyman, responsible for making investments in a multibillion-dollar fund.

That moneyman, like others contacted Sunday, spoke on condition neither they nor their firm be identified. And all, it should be noted, had a financial interest in either or both of the Petronas and Nexen deal.

"As much as Harper wants to send (Natural Resources Minister) Joe Oliver or (Trade Minister) Ed Fast around the world telling everyone that Canada is open for business, the fact is you're not," another New York money manager said. "Your actions are speaking louder than words. You're not open for business."

The Petronas decision "spooked people", said a U.S.-based analyst who advises institutional investors where to put their money. "People are really going to take a step back from here."

One called the Harper government's approach to attracting foreign investment a "Keystone Kops routine."

It's not just Petronas. It was the Harper government's decision in 2010 to get BHP Billiton to back off on buying Saskatchewan's Potash Corp. In 2008, the Harper gang spiked a U.S. firm's bid for a chunk of B.C.'s Macdonald Dettwiler.

Then there was Quebec's unwillingness to see hardware store chain Rona move into foreign hands. And the day before Harper told Petronas it couldn't have Progress, the CRTC told Bell it couldn't have Astral.

"The sum total of all this is that, if I see an investment opportunity in Canada, I'm going say, is it even worth it," said one of those New York moneymen who's looking to place his billions in places that are interested in new investments that will create jobs and wealth. "This is not looking good."